STEM Lessons & Challenges, Grade 6

Develop your sixth grade students’ creative problem-solving skills with STEM Lessons and Challenges. Students apply science, technology, engineering, and math concepts to solve real-world problems.

Every grade 6 unit is focused on a hands-on challenge and guides students to work together as engineers to design, prototype, test, and refine their creations.

• The 15 grade-appropriate STEM challenges target life, Earth, and physical science concepts.
• Every unit is focused on a hands-on challenge in which students apply the STEM process of plan, create, test, and redesign.
• No-prep lessons and easy-to-find materials help you fit STEM learning into the busy school day.

Each unit provides everything you need to guide your students in completing the hands-on challenge, including:

• Teacher overview pages—Tips and directions for preparing students to complete a STEM challenge, as well as a materials list that suggests readily available items to gather.
• Reading selections for background knowledge—Foundational information that is relevant to the challenge that students are completing.
• Visual real-world examples—A visual literacy page with real-world images relevant to the STEM challenge.
• A STEM challenge overview—Introduces the specific task and goal of each STEM challenge and provides space for students to brainstorm.
• Design process worksheets—Activities guide students to plan, create, test, and evaluate their creation.
• A redesign page to evaluate their design—The worksheet guides students through each step of the design process and provides space to document plans, materials, results, evaluations, and revisions.

Examples of STEM challenges and science topics from grade 6 include:

• Egg-Laying Box (Life Science Concept: Simple Machines (inclined plane)
• Submarine (Earth Science Concept: Buoyancy)
• Projector (Physical Science Concept: Optics)

Science topics within each unit support Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and teach the STEM process. An answer key is not included, since there isn’t one correct answer or solution to solve the problem or complete the challenge.

STEM Lessons and Challenges fosters students’ critical thinking, innovation, communication, and peer collaboration